Wind turbines typically comprise a tall tower supporting a nacelle, a generator and a rotor comprising a central hub and radially extending blades thereon. It is generally known that it is desirable to erect the tower as tall as possible to take advantage to high wind speeds however it is difficult to cost effectively erect towers of optimal heights in many locations, in part due to the limited availability of suitable cranes commonly used for lifting the rotor and nacelle onto the tower. The availability of suitable cranes thus limits the height of the turbine which in turn limits the efficiency of the turbine. Also due to the practical limitation of steel tube towers the height of the tower is also limited.
U.S. patent application publications 2009/0031639 by Cortina and 2008/0040983 by Fernandez Gomez et al. disclose examples of wind turbines in which the towers are formed of modular sections to simplify the erection thereof. As described however cranes are still required for lifting the various components into position such that the overall height of the tower is still limited. Furthermore the modular construction requires a considerable number of parts to be shipped to the construction site while also requiring specialised labour to assemble the complex structure thereof.